Tri-City Ledger -

School OKs land for Jay; meters almost set

May 31, 2018

Jay Project Manager Eric Seib gave the Jay Council an update on several projects in the town, including the water well on School Street, the water and gas meters and the sale of older equipment to upgrade at its Monday, May 21 meeting.

Water well #3, located at the corner of School Street and South Alabama Street, will soon have a cinder-block building built over it for protection. Seib said the carbon filter at that well has been offline for an extended time, but the plan is to swap out the old carbon with new carbon and bring it back online.

“A building will protect equipment and allow us to go to upgraded, updated automation,” said Seib.

Town officials will create a bid for construction to go out. The building has to be a block construction and be similar to the color of the school, so the structures have a unified look.

Seib said that at the last Santa Rosa County School Board meeting, Mayor Wesley Meiss presented approval for the survey and land to be turned over to the town of Jay. Since it was approved, the survey is moving forward for that land acquisition.

In other business, Seib told the council that by the end of this week, all the gas and water meters will have updated latitudes and longitudes. He said the software is working, but the lats and longs have to have the updates complete to pin point a particular meter and read it.

Since water and gas meters readings will be accurate, thanks to the upgrades in place, Jay Mayor Shon Owens told the council he would like to look at ordinances that pertain to bills that are 90 days due or unpaid and consider a possible update.

“We need to look at when to collect and when to cut off service,” said Owens. “We've got a $6,000 or $8,000 balance on accounts 90 days or older we've never dealt with. We need to have an ordinance in place to deal with the issue.”

Town attorney Steve Cozart said he would look at the current ordinances and be ready to discuss the issue at the next town council meeting.

The council approved a motion to reject the bids of $1,000 offered on either of two 2002 Ford F150 trucks with around 90,000 miles each. The vehicles are valued at $2,500 by Kelly Blue Book.

A second motion set the minimum bid for either of the two vehicles at $1,800 and was approved.

Anyone interested in the vehicles can call Eric Seib at Jay Town Hall at 850-675-4556.

The next council meeting will be at 6 p.m., Monday, June 4, at Jay Town Hall.